ships, and the men in hewing down the trees came upon serpents of most
extraordinary size.[256] There they also found the rhinoceros, an animal
rarely met with elsewhere. This is not the name it bears among the
Indians, but one given it by the Greeks, who were ignorant of the speech
of the country.[257] The king having built two cities, one on each side
of the river which he had lately crossed, presented each of the generals
with a crown, in addition to a thousand pieces of gold. Others also
received rewards in accordance either with the place which they held in
his friendship, or the value of the services which they had rendered.
Abisares, who had sent envoys to Alexander before the battle with Porus
had come off, now sent others to assure him that he was ready to do
whatever he commanded, provided only he was not obliged to surrender his
person; for he could neither live, he said, without having the power of a
king, nor have that power if he were to be kept in captivity. Alexander
bade them tell their master that if he grudged to come to Alexander,
Alexander would go to him.
_Chapter I. Continued.—Alexander advancing farther into the interior of
India, passes through forests and deserts—Crosses the Hydraotes—Besieges
and captures Sangala, and enters the kingdom of Sopithes, who receives
him with great hospitality and shows him a dog and lion fight_
After crossing a river some distance farther on, he advanced into the
interior parts of India. The forests there extended over an almost
boundless tract of country, and abounded with umbrageous trees of
stateliest growth, that rose to an extraordinary height. Numerous
branches, which for size equalled the trunk of ordinary trees, would bend
down to the earth, and then shoot straight up again at the point where
they bent upward, so that they had more the appearance of a tree growing
from its own root than of a bough branching out from its stem.[258] The
climate is salubrious, for the dense shade mitigates the violence of the
heat, and copious springs supply the land with abundance of water. But
here, also, were multitudes of serpents, the scales of which glittered
like gold. The poison of these is deadlier than any other, since their
bite was wont to prove instantly fatal, until a proper antidote was
pointed out by the natives.[259] From thence they passed through deserts
to the river Hyarôtis, the banks of which were covered with a dense
forest, abounding with trees not elsewhere seen, and filled with wild
peacocks.[260] Decamping hence, he came to a town that lay not far off.
This he captured by a general attack all round the walls, and having
received hostages, imposed a tribute upon the inhabitants.[261] He came
next to a great city—great at least for that region—and found it not only
encompassed with a wall, but further defended by a morass.[262]
The barbarians nevertheless sallied out to give battle, taking their
waggons with them, which they fastened together each to each. For weapons
of offence some had pikes and others axes, and they were in the habit
of leaping nimbly from waggon to waggon if they saw their friends hard
pressed and wished to help them. This mode of fighting being quite new to
the Macedonians, at first alarmed them,[263] since they were wounded by
enemies beyond their reach, but coming afterwards to look with contempt
upon a force so undisciplined, they completely surrounded the waggons
and began stabbing all the men that offered resistance. The king then
commanded the cords which fastened the waggons together to be cut[264]
that it might be easier for the soldiers to beset each waggon separately.
The enemy after a loss of 8000 men withdrew into the town.[265] Next day
the walls were escaladed all round and captured. A few were indebted for
their safety to their swiftness of foot. Those who swam across the sheet
of water when they saw the city was sacked, carried great consternation
to the neighbouring towns, where they reported that an invincible army,
one of gods assuredly, had arrived in the country.
Alexander having sent Perdiccas with a body of light troops to ravage
the country, and given another detachment to Eumenes to be employed in
bringing the barbarians to submission, marched himself with the rest
of the army against a strong city within which the inhabitants of some
other cities had taken refuge. The citizens sent deputies to appease the
king’s anger, but continued all the same to make warlike preparations. A
dissension, it seems, had arisen among them and divided their counsels,
some preferring to submit to the last extremities rather than surrender,
others thinking that resistance on their part would be altogether
futile. But as no consultation was held in common, those who were bent
on surrendering threw open the gates and admitted the enemy. Alexander
would have been justified in making the advocates of resistance feel his
displeasure, but he nevertheless pardoned them all without exception, and
after taking hostages marched forward to the next city. As the hostages
were led in the van of the army, the defenders on the wall recognised
them to be their own countrymen, and invited them to a conference.
Here they were prevailed on to surrender, when they were informed of
the king’s clemency to the submissive, and his severity if opposed. In
a similar way he gained over other towns, and placed them under his
protection.
They entered next the dominions of King Sopithes,[266] whose nation
in the opinion of the barbarians excels in wisdom, and lives under
good laws and customs. Here they do not acknowledge and rear children
according to the will of the parents, but as the officers entrusted with
the medical inspection of infants may direct, for if they have remarked
anything deformed or defective in the limbs of a child they order it to
be killed.[267] In contracting marriages they do not seek an alliance
with high birth, but make their choice by the looks, for beauty in the
children is a quality highly appreciated.
Alexander had brought up his army before the capital of this nation where
Sopithes was himself resident. The gates were shut, but as no men-at-arms
showed themselves either on the walls or towers, the Macedonians were
in doubt whether the inhabitants had deserted the city, or were hiding
themselves to fall upon the enemy by surprise. The gate, however, was
on a sudden thrown open, and the Indian king with two grown-up sons
issued from it to meet Alexander. He was distinguished above all the
other barbarians by his tall and handsome figure. His royal robe, which
flowed down to his very feet, was all inwrought with gold and purple.
His sandals were of gold and studded with precious stones, and even his
arms and wrists were curiously adorned with pearls. At his ears he wore
pendants of precious stones which from their lustre and magnitude were
of an inestimable value. His sceptre too was made of gold and set with
beryls,[268] and this he delivered up to Alexander with an expression of
his wish that it might bring him good luck, and be accepted as a token
that he surrendered into his hands his children and his kingdom.
His country possesses a noble breed of dogs, used for hunting, and said
to refrain from barking when they sight their game which is chiefly the
lion.[269] Sopithes wishing to show Alexander the strength and mettle of
these dogs, caused a very large lion to be placed within an enclosure
where four dogs in all were let loose upon him. The dogs at once fastened
upon the wild beast, when one of the huntsmen who was accustomed to work
of this kind tried to pull away by the leg one of the dogs which with the
others had seized the lion, and when the limb would not come away, cut
it off with a knife. The dog could not even by this means be forced to
let go his hold, and so the man proceeded to cut him in another place,
and finding him still clutching the lion as tenaciously as before, he
continued cutting away with his knife one part of him after another. The
brave dog, however, even in dying kept his fangs fixed in the lion’s
flesh; so great is the eagerness for hunting which nature has implanted
in these animals, as testified by the accounts transmitted to us.
I must observe, however, that I copy from preceding writers more than
I myself believe, for I neither wish to guarantee statements of the
truth of which I am doubtful, nor yet to suppress what I find recorded.
Alexander therefore leaving Sopithes in possession of his kingdom,
advanced to the river Hyphasis, where he was rejoined by Hephaestion who
had subdued a district situated in a different direction. Phegeus,[270]
who was king of the nearest nation, having beforehand ordered his
subjects to attend to the cultivation of their fields according to their
wont, went forth to meet Alexander with presents and assurances that
whatever he commanded he would not fail to perform.
_Chapter II.—Alexander obtains information about the Ganges and the
strength of the army kept by Agrammes, king of the Prasians—His speech to
the soldiers to induce them to advance to the Ganges_
The king made a halt of two days with this prince, designing on the third
day to cross the river, the passage of which was difficult, not only
from its great breadth, but also because its channel was obstructed with
rocks. Having therefore requested Phegeus to tell him what he wanted
to know, he learned the following particulars: Beyond the river lay
extensive deserts which it would take eleven days to traverse.[271] Next
came the Ganges, the largest river in all India, the farther bank of
which was inhabited by two nations, the Gangaridae and the Prasii,[272]
whose king Agrammes[273] kept in the field for guarding the approaches
to his country 20,000 cavalry and 200,000 infantry, besides 2000
four-horsed chariots, and, what was the most formidable force of all, a
troop of elephants which he said ran up to the number of 3000.
All this seemed to the king to be incredible, and he therefore asked
Porus, who happened to be in attendance, whether the account was true.
He assured Alexander in reply that, as far as the strength of the nation
and kingdom was concerned, there was no exaggeration in the reports, but
that the present king was not merely a man originally of no distinction,
but even of the very meanest condition. His father was in fact a barber,
scarcely staving off hunger by his daily earnings, but who, from his
being not uncomely in person, had gained the affections of the queen,
and was by her influence advanced to too near a place in the confidence
of the reigning monarch. Afterwards, however, he treacherously murdered
his sovereign; and then, under the pretence of acting as guardian to
the royal children, usurped the supreme authority, and having put the
young princes to death begot the present king, who was detested and held
cheap by his subjects, as he rather took after his father than conducted
himself as the occupant of a throne.
The attestation of Porus to the truth of what he had heard made the king
anxious on manifold grounds; for while he thought contemptuously of the
men and elephants that would oppose him, he dreaded the difficult nature
of the country that lay before him, and in particular, the impetuous
rapidity of the rivers. The task seemed hard indeed, to follow up and
unearth men removed almost to the uttermost bounds of the world. On the
other hand, his avidity of glory and his insatiable ambition forbade
him to think that any place was so far distant or inaccessible as to be
beyond his reach. He did indeed sometimes doubt whether the Macedonians
who had traversed all those broad lands and grown old in battlefields
and camps, would be willing to follow him through obstructing rivers and
the many other difficulties which nature would oppose to their advance.
Overflowing and laden with booty, they would rather, he judged, enjoy
what they had won than wear themselves out in getting more. They could
not of course be of the same mind as himself, for while he had grasped
the conception of a world-wide empire, and stood as yet but on the
threshold of his labours, they were now worn out with toil, and longed
for the time when, all their dangers being at length ended, they might
enjoy their latest winnings. In the end ambition carried the day against
reason; and, having summoned a meeting of the soldiers, he addressed them
very much to this effect:
“I am not ignorant, soldiers, that during these last days the natives of
this country have been spreading all sorts of rumours designed expressly
to work upon your fears; but the falsehood of those who invent such
lies is nothing new in your experience. The Persians in this sort of
way sought to terrify you with the gates of Cilicia, with the plains
of Mesopotamia, with the Tigris and Euphrates, and yet this river you
crossed by a ford, and that by means of a bridge. Fame is never brought
to a clearness in which facts can be seen as they are. They are all
magnified when she transmits them. Even our own glory, though resting
on a solid basis, is more indebted for its greatness to rumour than to
reality. Who but till the other day believed that it was possible for
us to bear the shock of those monstrous beasts that looked like so many
ramparts, or that we could have passed the Hydaspes, or conquered other
difficulties which after all were more formidable to hear of than they
proved to be in actual experience. By my troth we had long ago fled from
Asia could fables have been able to scare us.
“Can you suppose that the herds of elephants are greater than of other
cattle when the animal is known to be rare, hard to be caught, and
harder still to tame?[274] It is the same spirit of falsehood which
magnifies the number of horse and foot possessed by the enemy; and with
respect to the river, why, the wider it spreads the liker it becomes to
a placid pool. Rivers, as you know, that are confined between narrow
banks and choked by narrow channels flow with torrent speed, while on
the other hand the current slackens as the channel widens out. Besides,
all the danger is at the bank where the enemy waits to receive us as we
disembark; so that, be the breadth of the river what it may, the danger
is all the same when we are in the act of landing. But let us suppose
that these stories are all true, is it then, I ask, the monstrous size
of the elephants or the number of the enemy that you dread? As for the
elephants, we had an example of them before our eyes in the late battle
when they charged more furiously upon their own ranks than upon ours, and
when their vast bodies were cut and mangled by our bills and axes. What
matters it then whether they be the same number as Porus had, or be 3000,
when we see that if one or two of them be wounded, the rest swerve aside
and take to flight. Then again, if it be no easy task to manage but a
few of them, surely when so many thousands of them are crowded together,
they cannot but hamper each other when their huge unwieldy bodies want
room either to stand or run. For myself, I have such a poor opinion of
the animals that, though I had them, I did not bring them into the field,
being fully convinced they occasion more danger to their own side than to
the enemy.
“But it is the number, perhaps, of the horse and foot that excites your
fears! for you have been wont, you know, to fight only against small
numbers, and will now for the first time have to withstand undisciplined
multitudes! The river Granicus is a witness of the courage of the
Macedonians unconquered in fighting against odds;[275] so too is Cilicia
deluged with the blood of the Persians, and Arbela, where the plains
are strewn with the bones of your vanquished foes. It is too late, now
that you have depopulated Asia by your victories, to begin counting the
enemy’s legions. When we were crossing the Hellespont, it was then we
should have thought about the smallness of our numbers, for now Scythians
follow us, Bactrian troops are here to assist us, Dahans and Sogdians are
serving in our ranks. But it is not in such a throng I put my trust. It
is to your hands, Macedonians, I look. It is your valour I take as the
gage and surety of the deeds I mean to perform.
“As long as it is with you I shall stand in battle, I count not the
number either of my own or the enemy’s army. Do ye only, I entreat, keep
your minds full of alacrity and confidence. We are not standing on the
threshold of our enterprise and our labours, but at their very close. We
have already reached the sunrise and the ocean, and unless your sloth and
cowardice prevent, we shall thence return in triumph to our native land,
having conquered the earth to its remotest bounds. Act not then like
foolish husbandmen who, when their crops are ripe, loose them out of hand
from sheer indolence to gather them. The prizes before you are greater
than the risks, for the country to be invaded not only teems with wealth,
but is at the same time feebly defended. So then I lead you not so much
to glory as to plunder. You have earned the right to carry back to your
own country the riches which that sea casts upon its shores; and it would
ill become you if through fear you should leave anything unattempted
or unperformed. I conjure you then by that glory of yours whereby ye
soar above the topmost pinnacle of human greatness—I beseech you by my
services unto you, and yours unto me (a strife in which we still contend
unconquered), that ye desert not your foster-son, your fellow-soldier,
not to say your king, just at the moment when he is approaching the
limits of the inhabited world.
“All things else you have done at my orders—for this one thing I shall
hold myself to be your debtor. I, who never ordered you upon any service
in which I did not place myself in the fore-front of the danger, I who
have often with mine own buckler covered you in battle, now entreat you
not to shatter the palm which is already in my grasp, and by which, if
I may so speak without incurring the ill-will of heaven, I shall become
the equal of Hercules and Father Bacchus. Grant this to my entreaties,
and break at last your obstinate silence. Where is that familiar shout,
the wonted token of your alacrity? Where are the cheerful looks of my
Macedonians? I do not recognise you, soldiers, and, methinks, I seem not
to be recognised by you. I have all along been knocking at deaf ears.
I am trying to rouse hearts that are disloyal and crushed with craven
fears.”
When the soldiers, with their heads bent earthwards, still suppressed
what they felt, “I must,” he said, “have inadvertently given you some
offence that you will not even look at me. Methinks I am in a solitude.
No one answers me; no one so much as says me nay. Is it to strangers I
am speaking? Am I claiming anything unreasonable? Why, it is your glory
and your greatness we are asserting. Where are those whom but the other
day I saw eagerly striving which should have the prerogative of receiving
the person of their wounded king? I am deserted, forsaken, surrendered
into the hands of the enemy. But I shall still persist in going forward,
even though I should march alone. Expose me then to the dangers of
rivers, to the rage of elephants, and to those nations whose very names
fill you with terror. I shall find men that will follow me though I be
deserted by you. The Scythians and Bactrians, once our foemen, but now
our soldiers—these will still be with me.[276] Let me tell you, I had die
rather than be a commander on sufferance. Begone then to your homes, and
go triumphing because ye have forsaken your king![277] For my part, I
shall here find a place, either for the victory of which you despair, or
for an honourable death.”
_Chapter III.—Speech of Coenus on behalf of the army—Alexander’s
displeasure at the refusal of the soldiers to advance—He resolves to
return—Raises altars as memorials of his presence—Reaches the Acesines,
where Coenus dies—Reconciles Taxiles and Porus, and then sails down
stream_
But not even by this appeal could a single word be elicited from any of
the soldiers. They waited for the generals and chief captains to report
to the king that the men, exhausted with their wounds and incessant
labours in the field, did not refuse the duties of war, but were simply
unable to discharge them. The officers, however, paralysed with terror,
kept their eyes steadfastly fixed on the ground, and remained silent.
Then there arose, no one knew how, first a sighing and then a sobbing,
until, little by little, their grief began to vent itself more freely
in streaming tears, so that even the king, whose anger had been turned
into pity, could not himself refrain from tears, anxious though he was to
suppress them. At last, when the whole assembly had abandoned itself to
an unrestrained passion of weeping, Coenus, on finding that the others
were reluctant to open their lips, made bold to step forward to the
tribunal where the king stood, and signified that he had somewhat to say.
When the soldiers saw him removing his helmet from his head—a custom
observed in addressing the king—they earnestly besought him that he would
plead the cause of the army.
“May the gods,” he then said, “defend us from all disloyal thoughts; and
assuredly they do thus defend us. Your soldiers are now of the same mind
towards you as they ever were in times past, being ready to go wherever
you order them, ready to fight your battles, to risk their lives, and to
give your name in keeping to after ages. So then, if you still persist in
your purpose, all unarmed, naked and bloodless though we be, we either
follow you, or go on before you, according to your pleasure. But if you
desire to hear the complaints of your soldiers, which are not feigned,
but wrung from them by the sorest necessity, vouchsafe, I entreat you, a
favourable hearing to men who have most devotedly followed your authority
and your fortunes, and are ready to follow you wherever you may go. Oh,
sir! you have conquered, by the greatness of your deeds, not your enemies
alone, but your own soldiers as well.
“We again have done and suffered up to the full measure of the capacity
of mortal nature. We have traversed seas and lands, and know them better
than do the inhabitants themselves. We are standing now almost on the
earth’s utmost verge, and yet you are preparing to go to a sphere
altogether new—to go in quest of an India unknown even to the Indians
themselves. You would fain root out from their hidden recesses and dens
a race of men that herd with snakes and wild beasts, so that you may
traverse as a conqueror more regions than the sun surveys. The thought is
altogether worthy of a soul so lofty as thine, but it is above ours; for
while thy courage will be ever growing, our vigour is fast waning to its
end.
“See how bloodless be our bodies, pierced with how many wounds, and
gashed with how many scars! Our weapons are now blunt, our armour quite
worn out. We have been driven to assume the Persian garb since that of
our own country cannot be brought up to supply us. We have degenerated
so far as to adopt a foreign costume. Among how many of us is there to
be found a single coat of mail? Which of us has a horse? Cause it to be
inquired how many have servants to follow them, how much of his booty
each one has now left. We have conquered all the world, but are ourselves
destitute of all things. Can you think of exposing such a noble army as
this, all naked and defenceless, to the mercy of savage beasts, whose
numbers, though purposely exaggerated by the barbarians, must yet, as
I can gather from the lying report itself, be very considerable. If,
however, you are bent on penetrating still farther into India, that
part of it which lies towards the south is not so vast, and were this
subdued you could then quickly find your way to that sea which nature
has ordained to be the boundary of the inhabited world. Why do you make
a long circuit in pursuit of glory when it is placed immediately within
your reach, for even here the ocean is to be found. Unless, then, you
wish to go wandering about, we have already reached the goal unto which
your fortune leads you. I have preferred to speak on these matters in
your presence, O King! rather than to discuss them with the soldiers in
your absence, not that I have in view to gain thereby for myself the
good graces of the army here assembled, but that you might learn their
sentiments from my lips rather than be obliged to hear their murmurs and
their groans.”[278]